Tinder For the Road? Swipe Left to Rest, Right to Play

NBA athletes have been entering road trips with a “Tinder” approach. Tinder is a social dating app to connect people in different cities for the evening. Instead of hitting the hottest nightclub until the wee hours of the morning, players are “swiping left and swiping right” preferring to stay out of the public eye. A NBA player who remained anonymous stated:

“It’s absolutely true that you get at least two hours more sleep getting laid on the road today versus 15 years ago.”

Is this part of the reason why home teams have reached an all-time low of winning just 57.4 of the time? Are the athletes on these “grueling” stretches getting too much rest, if you know what we mean?

Staying Out of the Club and On the Tarmac

While there may be some truth to this (Allegedly), road travel has drastically changed since it became a requirement for NBA teams to have chartered transportation. Today, NBA teams are headed directly to the tarmac from the locker room. The convenience of travel allots more rest for the players and decreases the chances of being selected as donkey of the day or being spotted on The Shade Room.

Tinder is Social Media, Too

The truth is social media is to blame. This might be the only good social media has done since what feels like an overnight dominance. Athletes are have been noticing how “awake” major sponsors and the NBA have been. Their patience for embarrassment and humiliation has grown very thin.

So instead of doing things to lose a sponsorship or more importantly a job, you can a see multitude of what today’s world would consider “Squad goals.”

Using it Wisely

Ayesha Curry has created her own image thanks to her well rested MVP, Stephen Curry. Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union can be spotted on Instagram cuddled up ready for the latest episode of Scandal to start, or sometimes more on Snapchat. Iman Shumpert and Teyana Taylor have completely benched the Kardashian fashion club and have started their own. Sponsors are all about an image and these couples have portrayed ideal characteristics….thanks to social media.

Everything that every NBA athlete does is under a microscope. From traveling in the off season to traveling at least twice a game, players like James Harden are on the main stage all the time. Rather than allow it to embarrass or distract him, Harden has done the best thing and not get involved with social media at all. You can find his name mentioned once or twice off the court this year. That is mainly because this lefty is in his right mind.

If you want to know how it can turn out poorly, just ask Lala Anthony and Carmelo.